Which Records should we Keep?

Personal notes outlining when a person may have contacted the unemployment office

Any exhibit attached to an appeal

A formal decision rendered by an unemployment law judge

Why Keep Unemployment Records?

Anybody receiving unemployment benefits is prone to an audit. Even worse, everybody is vulnerable to a fraud allegation. Because unemployment fraud is a big problem in Minnesota, all applicants are at risk of being accused of something they did not engage.

Look, I wish this wasn’t true. As we can see, Minnesota had a 10.377% overpayment rate for the 3rd quarter in 2016. From my estimate, Minnesota’s unemployment office believes 1 out of 10 applicants acquired benefits incorrectly.

Thus, keep unemployment records just in case.

No Harm in Keeping Unemployment Records

Keeping paper documents is easy. You place them in a folder and attach the folder to yearly tax records. Otherwise, scanning documents makes the process of keeping records even more accessible.

Because the burden is small, there isn’t any harm in keeping records.

Lots of Harm for no records

On the other hand, if a person doesn’t have key documents to support their claim, damages may include: